Idaho Falls Aquarium

Idaho Falls put in a new aquarium and we went to it over Christmas break.  It was so fun and there were so many interactive exhibits!  The kids loved seeing the fish from Finding Nemo and watching Zac fearlessly touch all the animals.  I'm so grateful that he is there to teach our kids to be brave, because it was creeping me out!

Happy 10th Birthday Teagan!

Happy birthday to our old and wise Teagan!  He is so much fun and has a way of cheering up everyone around him.  He wanted a batman cake and we tried to make it a tall building, but it didn't really work out, but it was chocolate and cream cheese deliciousness.  On his birthday we went out to Chuck-o-Rama for lunch and then came home for cake and ice cream.

This year Teagan got to have a birthday party with his friends.  He requested a treasure hunt that went all around Shelley.  It was a fun group of boys and they had a lot of fun running around and being silly.  The places they went were: The basement, the Heath's to drink pop, the backyard to shoot balloons with BBguns, the laundry room, Mr. Pizza for pizza and pop, Arctic Circle for ice cream cones, Broulims for cupcakes and back home for a treasure box full of wrapped presents that they got to play white elephant with.  I think the party was a hit, happy birthday buddy!

How old are you: 10
Who is your best friend: Quinn Dixon
3. What is your favorite thing to do? play football
4. What is your favorite color? Green and Hazel
5. What is your favorite food? Chicken Cordon Bleu
6. What do you like to do with your family?  Go on Bike rides
7. What is your favorite toy? Space Rover with all the little guys
8 What is your favorite sport? football
9. What do you want to be when you grow up? Some sort of Doctor
10. How old will you be when you get married? Hopefully 22 or 23
10.5. Who do you have a crush on? Mary (so embarrassed)
11. How many kids are you going to have?  I don't know, 2 or more
12. What is your favorite book? Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone
13. What is your favorite show or movie? HP 7
14. What makes you happy? Dad
15. What makes you sad? Mom, no hahahaha.  When I don't get to do stuff and have action
16. What do you think about before you fall asleep?   I usually think about adventures.
17. What is your favorite part of your birthday?  When I chugged two cups of soda (at the Heath house)
18. What is your favorite scripture story?  The Brother of Jared and the special stones
19. What is something that you think you will accomplish before you are 11? To become a better Left Corner and make interceptions and tackle better.
20. What is one word that describes you?  Amazing

Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas season this year.  It was super busy, as always, but we had a ton of fun.  There were several Christmas parties and get togethers plus some fun family traditions.  Our Christmas card picture was fun this year, it wasn't perfect which was a perfect representation of our family.  We have fun, but it's not perfect.

Zac decided to take the year off from going "all out" for Christmas lights.  And then he got some fun ideas and decided to go bigger and better than ever.

When Julie and Whitney and their families came to town, we headed over to Jake's house for a get together.  Eloise loved the wonder blocks and was so excited to have aunt Julie and uncle Brian make a tower around her!

At the Durtschi Christmas party the kids loved being with their cousins and opening super fun presents from grandma and grandpa Durtschi!  

We made chocolates and caramels to deliver to neighbors.  It is always a highlight to do that together.

We headed up to Felt for the Daniels' family Christmas party as well.  We all had a great time eating yummy food, opening presents, and spending time together!

The kids love picking out gifts for all of their grandparents.  They are so thoughtful and always try to pick out the perfect item.  Watching them open the presents is always really exciting.  Eloise was especially excited about everyone she bought for, she "just knew that they would love it."

We went and did a mini concert at Life Care Center with the Durtschi cousins which was super fun.  It is always great to have a chance to serve and spread Christmas cheer.

Meeting Santa was so fun the kids all had very specific requests.  Teagan wanted a green remote control monster truck, Eloise hoped for roller blades, and Addy hoped for stick on earrings.  Everly was fine with just getting snuggled this year.

I went all out this year and made matching jammies for the whole family, for some reason the picture got cut off which makes me sad.  The girls' dolls and Teagan's Ensiri guy got matching outfits too.  It was really fun to all wear them on Christmas Eve.

The kids were up before 6am ready to see what santa brought.   So exciting!

Christmas morning lasted for a few hours and was just wonderful.  We just relaxed all afternoon and enjoyed our new gifts and spending time together.

Gingerbread Houses

In an effort to simplify some of our traditions this year we got the gingerbread house kits instead of doing our usual graham cracker ones.  It was much easier and we still had just as much fun.  Hooray for new traditions.

Pants Problems

Teagan has been struggling in the pants department lately and it has been the source of a lot of laughter for Zac and I.  A few weeks ago it took 4 tries to get pants that would work:

1. Teagan comes up with pants that have gaping holes in the knees, we asked him to go and change into nicer pants.

2. Teagan comes up in what looks like girl's bell bottoms.  They were super tight, except at the ankles.  We didn't understand why they looked so funny, until I figured out they were pants that were meant for Eloise to grow into and they must have found their way to his drawer.  After laughing hysterically we sent him down to change again.

3. Teagan appears in pants that are clearly several sizes too small, they must have missed the last time I went through his clothes and took out what he'd outgrown.  they were several inches above the ground and super tight skinny jeans.  

At this point I went downstairs and helped him pick out pants that would work, there were several options, he just kept grabbing ones that didn't.  We all laughed pretty hard at the mix ups.

Fast forward a couple weeks, we went to stay at Jeff and Julie's house and there was a pair of pants on the dresser for us.  I didn't look very close and thought they must have been Teagan's that we had left another time.  They were actually hand-me-downs from Kate for Eloise.  When we got home I put them away in Teagan's drawer and found him like this a few mornings later.  He was not super thrilled to be experiencing pants problems again, but Zac and I thought it was hilarious again, awesome parenting at its finest.

New Years Goals

With Jamaica only two months away we have started a rigorous workout regimen to prepare.  I love to paddle board and kayak and when I did those things over the summer, I was so exhausted and sore for so long, I don't want that to happen again.  Time to build some muscles!  Eloise and Adeline love to workout with me to my workout videos.  They also love to give helpful tips, especially when I'm "not doing the same thing as the person on the TV."  "Mom, you are supposed to jump higher," "Mom, you're supposed to touch your toes."  "Mom, you're supposed to do more pushups and not lay down."  Kids are so helpful.  They are also really funny.

Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert

We were lucky enough to get tickets to The Choir's Christmas Concert again this year!  Julie and Jeff also had tickets so we went and stayed with them and rode the train to downtown.  It was pretty crowded and we all had to stand and the kids had a blast pretending to "fall over" whenever the train made a crazy turn.  My mom got 4 tickets and took her friend Bob and Whitney and Joe, and my dad got tickets and took Beth, Rachel and John.  None of us were sitting together, but we all waved and saw each other in passing which was fun.  

The actual concert was so amazing, I loved it so much.  Zac and Teagan liked it, but decided that next year I can just go by myself with my sisters or something.  It was a little too long for them.